You can’t read an article in the music press without tripping over somebody complaining about Spotify royalties. You’ve heard the chorus: Spotify is destroying what’s left of the CD market. It is cannibalizing iTunes. It is ripping off indie artists. And so on. So, you think. Spotify must be pretty bad. But is it?...

We met “singer at large” Johnny J Blair seven years ago when we produced his live-in-studio record, Treadmarks. The passion, commitment, and standard of performance he brought to that session were unforgettable. Treadmarks went on to bend ears, garnering comparisons from Amplifier magazine to Steve Forbert, John Wesley Harding, and Billy Bragg. One of the record’s...

The new album from The May Bees, Saint-Denis, is out. And because you’re reading this right now, you can download it instantly from Bandcamp and get the CD for free (with free shipping, natch) through Friday, September 30, 2011. Good? Uh, yes, it kinda is. We met May Bees leader Gregory Orange about five years...